I took a whole year, from one summer to the next, to shorten this one, not working at it constantly of course, but side by side with quite other activities and preoccupations. What I hoped to achieve by pruning was not so much proportion, stripped essence and rhythm, as self-defence against the possible reactions of any who might consider themselves more or less directly attacked in it. In Italy, as is well-known, some things must not be made light of, so think what happens when one takes them seriously. In books and films the United States of America can have imbecile generals, corrupt judges and crooked police. So can England, France (at least up till the present), Sweden and so on. Italy has never had, has not and never will have them. That's how it is and, as Giusti said of those ambassadors whom Barnabo Visconti forced to swallow signet, parchment and seal, a fuss ought to be made about it. I don't feel heroic enough to face charges of libel and slander, not deliberately at any rate.
